KONSTANTIN IGUMNOV
Russian pianist (1873 - 1948)

Konstantin Igumnov was a pupil of Nikolai Zverev whose students numbered Alexander Siloti, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, and Alexander Goldenweiser.  At the Moscow conservatory he studied piano with Siloti and Paul Pabst, and composition with Taneyev, Arensky and Ippolitov-Ivanov.

His list of students includes some of the most prominent names of the Russian school including Bolesław Kon, Naum Shtarkman, Elena Beckman-Shcherbina, Yakov Flier, Lev Oborin, Maria Grinberg, Andrzej Wasowski, Ryszard Bakst, Tengiz Amirejibi, Natalia Satina (Rachmaninoff's wife), Bella Davidovich, Rosa Tamarkina, and the legendary conductor Issay Dobrowen.

He Premiered Rachmaninoff's first piano sonata and was known for his late Beethoven sonatas and his Liszt, none of which are available to me to hear.

Konstantin Igumnov's style belongs to a past era.  When you consider that he was an exact contemporary of Rachmaninoff, it sounds dated.  His Beethoven is not my idea of Beethoven, and I am not overwhelmed by his take on Tchaikovsky and Liadov, but it gives an interesting view into how the late Russian Romantics might have approached such music. Of course, their are moments of sheer genius.

For me, Konstantin Igumnov is well suited to Schumann.  Both are extremely romantic and somewhat erratic in their approach. His playing of the 2nd movement from Kreisleriana, and its struggle between Florestan and Eusebius, grabs and holds my attention.  And I find his Scriabin Poème just beautiful.

I also find Igumnov's Chopin mazurka curiously appealing, while his performance of the sonata is perhaps the most disturbing of the lot, sounding as though he were arguing with the music much of the time.

Beethoven  Piano Sonata 7 in D major, Op 10~1

i Presto
07:02 ➢ ii Largo e mesto
14:55 ➢ iii Minuetto - Allegro
17:26 ➢ iv Rondo - Allegro

recorded live in 1947